The artist who paints cows

Monday, Feb 8, 2016,13:16 ISTBy Metrovaartha AAA

New Delhi | For Singapore-based artist P Gnana, the recurring childhood memories of his mother feeding cows have transpired into sculptures of the bovine animal to such an extent that he is now known as the painter who paints cows.

A collection of 44 paintings and 10 sculptures by the artist are part of an ongoing exhibition titled, Emotion In Motion at the Art Spice Gallery here. Cow is a part of my childhood memories where I have seen my mother feeding cows and those images started appearing in my paintings. I decided to choose it as one of the main subjects in my works.

Now, in Singapore they recognise me as the painter who paints cows, says Gnana. The artist who began his practice with the semi-figurative style, has been focusing primarily on the cow as his subject for nearly nine years now. Earlier my style was semi-figurative, but after the cow started recurring in my work, I realised that I wanted to continue with something that is very pure in my heart and memory, he says.

Gnana uses mixed media for his sculptures where he combines bronze with wood or steel and other found materials that he retrieves from iron scraps. For instance, instead of designing a tail for the cow, he has used an old paint brush. I combine old materials of the past with those of the present, he says.

The artist who grew up in Neyvelli town in Tamil Nadu, draws his inspiration from daily life around him and interpreting it to reflect in his own artworks. Whatever I see and notice in my daily life while passing villages or other places, I don’t imitate what I see, but I bring it to my heart and give it a very stylist way of my own identity, he says.